Gonna give context to this for posterity, because I'm.... partly? over the interaction (though still not looking forward to future interactions with that attending), but I like having diary posts to look at for the future. So:
This attending is known for being an asshole when things are even hinted at not being done exactly as she wants, and was already known for that two years ago when she was a graduating resident at this hospital; however, I was told she may particularly have it out for Family Medicine residents, which I assume is because we are her "enemy" when it comes to sometimes not accepting admissions. In the past, she has snapped at me over the phone for saying "I will let my attending know, and if we admit, I'll put the orders in! :)" because I unthinkingly used the word if and, "Oh, it WILL be an admission." (It was, but, like, calm down? I did not mean it any particular way?)
Never mind that in this case, I came down, did a full evaluation, gave my recommendation including discharge medications and follow up instructions, and fully explained everything to the patient. If I was trying to skip out on work or something, I wouldn't have already done 85% of it.
She might have some kind of persecution issues, idk. One of the issues she called me back-to-back (and hung up, and called again 5 seconds later over) about was that when she was grilling me in rapid-fire about a decision my attending had made which wasn't in-line with what a specialist had vaguely/weakly recommended ("I'm not convinced, but I'll see the patient in the morning if you want," per the ED resident), I said, "[Dr. Attending] said he wasn't sure the [specialist] had all the information," which was a polite way of saying that guy didn't see the patient, check the chart, or have access to prior specialist records when consulted because he's in bed at home, and which she interpreted as me personally believing that all ED physicians are idiots who can't communicate medical information, which she proceeded to rant at me about.
(Maybe my placid customer service voice also pissed her off, idk, but when I'm stressed and getting snapped at, I don't really have other ways of interacting with someone who is ostensibly above me in the hospital hierarchy. At one point she told me to choose my words more carefully, and in my head I was like, dude, you literally just called me "babe" on the phone to be passive aggressive. Is the professionalism in the room with us?! Like I cannot emphasize enough that I have never been anything but pleasant to her, my crime is entirely just "didn't do exactly what she wanted.")
She was also very upset that my attending might not be able to get back to her by the minute her shift ended (one of the things she was spam calling me about instead of calling him, for some reason), which is frustrating because two years ago the first time she was mean out of nowhere to me, it was because I'd finished all my work by end of shift and was going to head out, and she accused me of shoving (nonexistent??) work on others to "leave early" (on time).
At the end of the day, I still disagree with her judgment. The patient had a benign arrhythmia which has been known for the past 3 years and thoroughly worked up in the outpatient setting. She came in with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo with a positive Dix-Hallpike (which I am the only one that checked, btw) which was already improving. Patient was ultimately admitted genuinely because my attending was fed up with the ED attending saying "well, she's dizzy and has an arrhythmia," and she sat in the hospital for three days because that's how long it takes to get a brain MRI when it's ordered as routine instead of stat. (Spoiler: Workup was entirely negative.)
I think that instance, this instance, and the phone snapping over using "if" are the totality of negative interactions I've had with her over two years, but I've also only had to interact with her a handful of times, and it's left an impression just how quick she is to assume the absolute worst and react aggressively in response.
Wait jk there was also that one time she kicked me off of an ED computer because it was "hers" and she "needs to be able to see patients." I moved one computer to the left to the open computer there. :)
At the end of the day x2: Again, this attending is just like that, possible especially like that if you have "Family Medicine" under your name on your ID tag. I don't really see this as personal. But it does suck specifically because I'm going to be here for another year, including taking overnight admits, and now it's just going to be unpleasant looking forward to interacting with her in the future. She was in front of me in line at the cafe the next day and avoided eye contact, LOL.
Thank FUCK I never have to work ED shifts again. :wheeze:
Okay, now I'm done thinking about this hopefully forever because recounting it is annoying and tiring. You're welcome, future me who is curious about my past residency adventures.
